With so many options on the market, construction scheduling software programs are in abundance. However, very few actually cater to all the challenges presented by the industry at large. Assignar is one of the few platforms that’s designed for every scenario that a construction business may face.
Let’s have a basic understanding of how the scheduling process works in Assignar.
Scheduling basics on Assignar
Let’s go through the basics of the process of scheduling on Assignar:
Creating projects
Here, you can do projects and manage them. Click the Add Project button to start a new project. The “New Project” window will show up where further details can be added.
Listing projects
Follow these steps to list all the projects and find particular projects:
- To see all the projects, select Projects Data, then Projects in the Navigation tab.
- With the help of the search box, you can search for projects.
- If you click the “Advanced Search” button, you can do a more advanced search that finds results according to the specified conditions.
- Click or tap at the top of the column to put the list in alphabetical or numerical order, going up or down.
Editing projects
One can click on the vertical ellipsis to the right side of the intended project and choose Edit.
Sprouting subprojects
With the help of the option “Add Subproject,” one can connect a subproject to another project. This option lets you expand a parent project into multiple child projects, which is very handy for bigger projects.
Archiving projects
One can send the projects that are chosen to a CSV file (this will store information for the selected projects in a comma delimited file). Select Archive to save the project. Because of this, the project will not be visible in the list but will be present in the system.
What are orders?
At the core of Assignar lies Orders. This is the center where all the permissions and relations between users, abilities, assets, and roles can be seen and controlled. With orders, employees can be informed about their work details.
Adding orders to the schedule
Start on the scheduler and click the “New Order” button to make an order.
The user will be asked if he wants to use a template to create an order. Templates are great for often repetitive things.
- Usually, you’ll start by filling up “Enter a Job Description.” Because of this, Assignar understands your team’s work.
- The dates can also be set to mark the start and completion of the job.
- You don’t need to fill in the location and client, as it will be filled in automatically.
Create roles
The right side of the order screen can be used to set up the roles and shifts for the job.
After adding a role, you need to set up the following:
- Qty or Quantity: Qty is the number of people you’ll need to do this job during this shift.
- Start Time and End Time: These are the hours for this shift. By default, Assignar will use the shift hours you set in your global settings.
- Role Dates: You can set this shift to work on certain days of the week, or you can choose specific dates by clicking Show detailed.
- Keep doing what you’re doing until you’ve added all the Roles that this Order needs.
Editing orders
Click the vertical ellipses menu next to the order to edit the order. This will land you on the order’s options menu. If you choose “Edit order,” you’ll go back to the order menu described above.
All the details of an order are editable.
Connecting resources with orders
Connecting resources to the created orders are the next step.
View the qualified resources by choosing the shifts:
- Only one role can be given out at a time. When you choose a shift, the appropriate employees for that shift are shown according to their capabilities and personal work schedule.
- By clicking on a shift, you can choose that shift.
- You can use shift+click on various shift assignments.
- The ctrl key can be used to select multiple shifts.
If you double-click on any shift, you can choose all shifts in the current date range.
Select your resources
- To select a worker, click on it in the list.
- The shift key can be used to select multiple workers.
- Similarly, you can use the ctrl+click to remove a worker/resource from the selection.
You can assign those resources by dragging them to your shifts.
Dragging the workers to the results of their respective shifts in successful assignments.
Alerts
You can either notify everyone who is working on the order or notify a specific role or shift.
Notifying everyone who is working on an order
Click the vertical ellipsis next to the order and choose “Notify.” This way, everybody on the job will be notified instantly.
The link to the assignment on the Assignar mobile app is already included in the default template. Using a template also allows you to change the message’s format.
Notification for a particular shift or role
This can be done instantly through the vertical ellipsis menu of the concerned role or shift.
Note that SMS (text messages) can only have 160 characters each, but most phones will group together multiple SMSes so that the recipient only sees one message. If you get a message saying you have more than 160 characters, you can still send the message, but it will count as more than one SMS toward your monthly limit.
Conclusion
Successful operations cannot be achieved without careful scheduling. When planning is integrated into Assignar, the business is provided with a central location from which problems may be addressed as a unit. Maintaining an up-to-date schedule in Assignar allows you to keep tabs on time spent, work accomplished, and paperwork brought in from the job site.